Juan Martin Del Potro sidelines Gael Monfils in the opener – ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament 2013
Last year’s runner-up, Juan Martin Del Potro, had another emphatic beginning to the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament by outplaying the French tennis ace, Gael Monfils, in the first round battle. The second seeded Argentinean took
merely 71 minutes to wrap up victory in straight sets, with the final score line settling at 6-3, 6-4, in his favour.
It was the first meeting of these two professionals on the ATP World Tour and Del Potro took no time in getting under the skin of his opponent. He took reins of momentum right from the beginning and orchestrated his rival at will,
bagging victory in a dominating fashion. He had a brilliant run at this venue last season but was denied to claim glory in the final at the hands of the Swiss Maestro, Roger Federer. However, the second seeded Argentine was very delighted to have a solid start
to the current edition of World Tennis Tournament and registering his opening victory against a former top-tenner.
"To play Monfils in the first round of the tournament is a tough match,” said Del Potro in his post match reviews. “But I played really well, very focussed all the time. I closed the match out very strongly and that gives me confidence
for my next round. Gael was out of competition for a while and he's trying to get back a good level. I think very soon he will be fighting for the Top 10 again."
Currently holding the seventh spot in the ATP World Tour Rankings, Del Potro was off to a flying start in the opener, registering an early serve break and imposing a 3-0 lead over the French opponent. Monfils couldn’t recover from
the early blow and kept lingering behind Del Potro in the entire opening set. He had to submit at 3-6 in the end.
A much steadier start was witnessed in the following set of the match, with both men holding their serves in the opening eight games. Del Potro finally got an opportunity in the ninth game and he cashed it rightfully to reach 5-4.
He finished off the contest at 6-4 and booked a second round match against the unseeded Latvian, Ernests Gulbis.
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